Major General Luong Tam Quang, head of the office of the Ministry of Public Security, speaking at a press briefing at the ministry on January 4, dismissed as baseless the rumor that Nguyen Bac Son, former Minister of Information and Communications, has been prosecuted in the MobiFone-AVG case, the local media reported.

Nguyen Bac Son, former Minister of Information and Communications

Quang said the case, in which State-run mobile carrier MobiFone illegally acquired a 95% stake in private pay TV firm AVG, is still under investigation. Developments of the case will be publicized on the portal of the Ministry of Public Security.

At the end of October 2018, Son was stripped of his title as former Minister of Information and Communications.

Since he was the secretary of the ministry’s Party committee for the 2011-2016 tenure, he must bear responsibility for serious violations and shortcomings of the committee during his tenure.

Officials said he failed to respect Party principles and working regulations, and was found to have been directly involved in the process of making decisions on many aspects of the project, in violations of regulations.

Son had signed some acquisition documents that were submitted to the then-prime minister for approval, and had even assigned his subordinates to sign a number of relevant documents, which ran counter to regulations, as this task was beyond their authority.

In July last year, the Investigative Police Agency under the ministry detained Le Nam Tra, former chairman of MobiFone, and Pham Dinh Trong, head of the Ministry of Information and Communications’ Enterprise Management Department, and examined their homes seeking evidence of their involvement in the case. They faced charges of “violating regulations on state capital management and usage, thus causing serious consequences.”

On November 14, 2018, Cao Duy Hai, former general director of MobiFone, and Pham Thi Phuong Anh, incumbent deputy general director at MobiFone, were also prosecuted on similar charges.

MobiFone had spent VND8,889.8 billion purchasing 344.66 million shares from AVG in late 2015.

Following a probe into the purchase, the Government Inspectorate concluded that AVG began incurring losses after it was acquired by MobiFone. The irregularities and irresponsibility of MobiFone cost the State some VND7 trillion, including AVG’s liabilities of VND1.13 trillion.

The acquisition of AVG directly affected MobiFone and led it to perform poorly since 2016, with 2016 profits falling by VND321.7 billion against the previous year. Also, accumulated losses have reached over VND1.98 trillion as of late 2018.

SGT